PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED
Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Framing the lead-painted farmers
Many framers of the U.S. Constitution were farmers.
If you switch a pair of consecutive letters in “framers” – “r” and “a” – the result is “farmers.”
Switch two pairs of consecutive letters in a word for something that eliminates impurities – impurities like lead, for example – to get a word for something that might lead to impurity, according to Puritans.
What are these two words?
Appetizer Menu
Creepy Crawly Critter Conundrums Appetizer:
Birds and bugs and Hippopotami!
🥁1. Name an insect. Change the last three letters to a vowel. The result is a place of worship.
🥁2. Name a contagious disease in two words.
Change the last four letters of the phrase to a different four letters to name an endangered bird.
🥁3. Think of a word you might use to describe an action in Hungry Hungry Hippos, in six letters.
Move its third and fourth letters five places later in the alphabet (for example, A becomes F, B becomes G, etc.).
Move its first letter five places earlier in the alphabet (for example, H becomes C, I becomes D, etc.).
The result is the name of a word game.
MENU
Base-Pathfinder, Or The Infield Steal Slice:
Larceny and literacy
What literary connection does a past novelist from the American Midwest have with the last names of two of Major League Baseball’s all-time leading base stealers?
Hint: The last name of a manager who managed a third all-time leading base stealer also shares this literary connection with the novelist.
Riffing Off Shortz And Wilk Slices:
Putting on your big boy pants!
Will Shortz’s March 1st NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Michael Wilk of Goleta, California, reads:
Think of a hyphenated word that describes certain pants. The first half of the word and a homophone of the second half are synonyms. What kind of pants are these?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Wilk Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Name a Spanish word for a beverage associated with mothers.
Name an Italian pronoun associated with mothers (thanks to a Swedish band’s song that inspired a Broadway musical, a movie and its sequel).
Combine the letters in these two words, removing one of the two letters that occurs twice. Rearrange the result to form a first name.
Now name the English word for the same beverage associated with mothers. Invert its first letter. The result is a surname.
This first name and surname belong to a puzzle-maker. Who is it?
ENTREE #2
Name a type of pants associated with working men and women.
Replace a vowel with a different vowel and divide the result into two words that together form a synonym for “cow pastures.”
What type of pants are these?
ENTREE #3
Think of a compound (sometimes hyphenated) word that describes certain pants. Switch the initial letters of its two parts. Insert a “y” between the first and second letters of the first part.
If you pronounce the result aloud, phonetically it will sound like a “politically incorrect” comment one might make to a man or woman clad in such pants.
What kind of pants are these?
ENTREE #4
Name a 9-letter compound word that is a synonym of “culotte.” Switch the compound parts, separate them with a space, and add an “s” at the end.
The result is formal or semi-formal menswear, in two words, sometimes worn with a matching suit jacket. (These two words are oxymoronic. The menswear, however, ought not be laundered in Oxydol, but rather drycleaned!)
What is this two-word menswear?
ENTREE #5
Write a two-word caption for the left-hand side of the image pictured here, and a three-word caption for the right-hand side of the image.
What are these captions?
ENTREE #6
Think of a hyphenated word (often written as two words) that describes certain pants that taper all the way down to the bottom of the leg.
These pants are sometimes called “skinny jeans.”
A person who is described by the second half of the hyphenated word can usually also be described by the first half of the hyphenated word.
What kind of pants are these?
ENTREE #7
Think of a hyphenated word that describes certain pants.
The noun form of the adjective that is the first half of the word is a near-synonym of a homophone of the second half of the word.
What kind of pants are these?
Hint: This puzzle has nothing to do with clothing.
ENTREE #8
Think of a compound word that describes certain pants.
The first and second parts of the word can function as verbs.
If you place the word “out” after each, they form synonymous two-word phrases that both mean “prolong.”
What kind of pants are these?
Dessert Menu
Distracting Dessert:
Goldberg garb and Moore garmentia
Name something thespians named Moore and Goldberg both wore, and what they both had that required them to wear it.
If you switch the beginning sounds of these two words and say the result aloud it will sound like a trendy two-word idiom for an obsessive distraction.
What is this idiom?
Hint: The obsessive distraction is “subterranean” and is rooted in children’s literature.
Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to cravers of scrumptious puzzles!
Our master chef, Grecian gourmet puzzle-creator Lego Lambda, blends and bakes up mysterious (and sometimes questionable) toppings and spices (such as alphabet soup, Mobius bacon strips, diced snake eyes, cubed radishes, “hominym” grits, anagraham crackers, rhyme thyme and sage sprinklings.)
Please post your comments below. Feel free also to post clever and subtle hints that do not give the puzzle answers away. Please wait until after 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesdays to post your answers and explain your hints about the puzzles. We serve up at least one fresh puzzle every Friday.
We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Thank you.
PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED
Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Dealing black jacks and red aces
Take a word found on a gift card. Spell it backward.
Remove two consecutive letters – a pair that you might find on a baseball scorecard, leaving two numbers whose sum wins a card game.
What is this word?
Appetizer Menu
Dining On Sandwiches With A Spoon Appetizer:
Pet a hot dog, burn your hand!
Note: We are pleased and proud as punch to serve up this week another excellent “sky diversion” puzzle created by Mark Scott of Seattle, Washington, whose screen name is “skydiveboy”... because Mark has been known to jump out of airplanes!
Spoonerize a well known sandwich in two words to describe why a dog might be difficult to pet.
What is this sandwich.
Why might a dog be difficult to pet?
MENU
The Year Of The Frog Slice:
Log-on before you leap
Describe, using two adjectives and a noun, a description of any witty and quick-witted social-network message poster. Rearrange the letters of this description to spell two words associated with leap year.
What are these two words and the three-word description?
Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices:
Names of games and human frames
Will Shortz’s February 23rd NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Michican, reads:
Name a well-known game in 8 letters. Drop the fifth letter. Move the first letter into the vacated spot ... and you’ll spell, in order, part of the human body. What game is it, and what’s the body part?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices read:
ENTREE #1
Take the combined letters of either:
I. The title of a magazine that “died” in 1957 and the first syllable of a not-dead-yet “men’s” magazine (8 letters, 4 letters), or...
II. Molecules made up of long chains of amino acids that function in membrane-enclosed microscopic masses of protoplasm (4, 8), or...
III. The basic plot feature of the 1996 movie "Multiplicity" (6, 6).
Rearrange them to form the first and last names of a puzzle- maker. Who is it, and what are the answers to the three clues?
ENTREE #2
Name an item, in two 4-letter words, found in the costume department of a theater that specializes in Shakespearean productions.
Remove the space and drop the fifth letter. Move the first letter into the vacated spot ... and you’ll spell, in order, part of the human body.
What item is it, and what’s the body part?
ENTREE #3
Name a well-known game in 8 letters.
Drop the second letter.
Move the first letter so that it becomes the third letter in this 7-letter result, forming a word for places where games are played.
What game is it, and what’s the place where games are played?
ENTREE #4
Name one word for “sub-parts” of two different types of body parts contained in the human head. Rearrange its letters to form a synonym for the human trunk.
What is this synonym?
What is the word for the “sub-parts” of body parts in the head.
Hint: Trees (which have trunks) also have these “sub-parts.”
ENTREE #5
Name a well-known game in 7 letters. Move the last letter into the third position.
Remove the first and last letters of the result ... and you’ll spell, in order, part of the human body.
What game is it, and what’s the body part?
ENTREE #6
Name a well-known two-word game in 5 and 4 letters.
Take the first word. Drop its third and fifth letters, add an “a” and rearrange the result to form a synonym of body.
Spell the second word of the game backward to name what you might call any part of the human body.
What is this game?
What are this synonym and name for any part of the body?
ENTREE #7
Name a well-known oriental game in 7 letters. Move each letter one place ahead in the alphabet (so that A becomes B, B becomes C, etc.). Rearrange the result to spell a word that is part of the anatomy of an axe and a word that is not a part of the anatomy of an axe but is a part of the human anatomy.
What game is it, and what are the two body parts?
ENTREE #8
Name a well-known game in 5 letters.
Move one of its letters one place ahead in the alphabet (so that A becomes B, B becomes C, etc.) ... and you’ll spell a part of the human body.
What game is it, and what’s the body part?
ENTREE #9
Name a human body part in 5 letters and 2 syllables.
If you switch the order of the syllables and pronounce the result it will sound like the name of a kind of bed ... like the kind from which a person recovering from an injury to this body part might take comfort and rest.
What’s the body part? What is the name of the bed?
Dessert Menu
CalenDessert:
Proverbial wisdom comes true
Name a proverbial phrase. Change the word “time” to a specific period of time, remove an article and rearrange the letters of the last word.
The result is a true statement about our calendar.
What are this phrase and true statement?
Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to cravers of scrumptious puzzles!
Our master chef, Grecian gourmet puzzle-creator Lego Lambda, blends and bakes up mysterious (and sometimes questionable) toppings and spices (such as alphabet soup, Mobius bacon strips, diced snake eyes, cubed radishes, “hominym” grits, anagraham crackers, rhyme thyme and sage sprinklings.)
Please post your comments below. Feel free also to post clever and subtle hints that do not give the puzzle answers away. Please wait until after 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesdays to post your answers and explain your hints about the puzzles. We serve up at least one fresh puzzle every Friday.
We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Thank you.
PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED
Schpuzzle Of The Week:
A brownstone mystery to brainstorm
Name, in four syllables, what you might call a brownstone in a particular neighborhood of a United States metropolis.
Alter the consonant sound at the beginning of the second syllable and add a consonant sound to its end.
The result sounds like a medical professional’s asset.
What is this asset?
Note: The first word in the second sentence of this Schpuzzle my look like “After” but it is “Alter.”
Appetizer Menu
Chart-Topping Hits Appetizer:
Front of the name’s the same
Note: Chuck has struck again!
Puzzleria! is proud to present another excellent conundrum created by Chuck. We extend him our gratitude.
Name a recording artist – first and last names, 11 letters total – whose name appears in the names of two different groups the artist fronted.
One group had one Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit in the 1960’s and the other group had one Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit in the 1970’s.
Who was the recording artist and what were the hit songs?
Hint: The first three letters of the artist’s first name are the same as the first three letters of the artist’s last name.
Sartorial Appetizer:
Mannequinslaughter at the Haberdashery!
Place a plural word for specific body parts in front of a general term for one such body part.
Replace the plural word with a synonym.
The result is something you might see at a haberdashery.
What might you see at a haberdashery?
MENU
Riffing Off Shortz And Rohrer Slices:
The silence of the monograms
Will Shortz’s February 16th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Chris Rohrer of Saint Paul, Minnesota, reads:
What familiar 10-letter word contains a silent B, E, and O – not necessarily in that order. And those three letters don’t have to be consecutive in the word.
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz Slices read:
ENTREE #1
“Heir to the Throne” Prince Charles, “Honest Abe” Lincoln, and “Goldfinger Bond Buddy” actress Honor Blackman all contain a silent “H” at the beginning of a word in their “titles” or “extended names.”
Name a puzzle-maker whose first and last names each contain a silent “H” between the beginning and end of each name.
ENTREE #2
Take two letters that are sometimes pronounced the same, like the “G” in “Giraffe” and the “J” “Jackal.”
What familiar 10-letter word contains not a “G” or a “J” but two other such silent letters?
Hints: Both silent letters are in the second half of the alphabet, and in the second half of the 10-letter word.
The word literally means “present yourselves” or “Show up!” (That is to say, it is similar to a subpoena.)
ENTREE #3
Levon loved reading the novels and dramas in his comparative literature class, but found the nuances of narrative style among them elusive.
Take a seven-letter adjective (with a silent third letter) that describes such nuances.
Insert a “t” within this adjective to form a noun that describes “What You Will,” for example, or “A Novel Without a Name” – two of the books on his reading list.
What are this adjective and noun?
ENTREE #4
The answer to each of the following clues is a single word. Solve for each.
There will be one letter that is not pronounced in each answer.
These six letters, in order, spell a word. What is it?
1. No man, according to a poet (6)
2. Word following Risky or preceding casual (8)
3. Pinkish-orange food (6)
4. Name associated with a “self-contained” bottle (5)
5. How people swear when they are taking a stand (8)
6. A “dance,” ending in “ing,” in which a rook and king do a “do-si-do” but stop halfway through it (8)
ENTREE #5
Take a six-letter word in which all letters are pronounced except the last one.
Removing this last, silent letter leaves a five-letter word in which all letters are pronounced except for the last two.
(It is almost as if the silent letter had infected its two nearest neighbors with a “dumbness disease” before departing!)
What are these two words?
ENTREE #6
Take a seven-letter adjective that describes a dewlap or wattle.
Say it aloud, pronouncing one of its letters as you would pronounce the final letter in a synonym for a portable spa.
The result sounds like an eight-letter word for a certain source of oil.
What are these two words?
Dessert Menu
Fist, Lap & Dimple Dessert:
Fistfuls of silver and green
Name a two-word green object that can be hidden within a fist.
Remove one letter to form two objects, usually silver, that can be hidden within a fist.
What are these three objects?
Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to cravers of scrumptious puzzles!
Our master chef, Grecian gourmet puzzle-creator Lego Lambda, blends and bakes up mysterious (and sometimes questionable) toppings and spices (such as alphabet soup, Mobius bacon strips, diced snake eyes, cubed radishes, “hominym” grits, anagraham crackers, rhyme thyme and sage sprinklings.)
Please post your comments below. Feel free also to post clever and subtle hints that do not give the puzzle answers away. Please wait until after 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesdays to post your answers and explain your hints about the puzzles. We serve up at least one fresh puzzle every Friday.
We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Thank you.
PUZZLERIA! SLICES: OVER 8!/20 SERVED
Schpuzzle Of The Week:
Devisers of ways to stargaze
Describe either “Galileo Galilei” or “Kepler” with the same two-word phrase.
Switch the words in that phrase to name what sounds like magnification devices that are used indoors to view the stars.
What are these devices?
What is the two-word phrase that describes “Galileo Galilei” or “Kepler”?
Appetizer Menu
Cryptic Cupid FebFourteen Appetizer:
Tough-love cross words beat sweet nothings
Some people like to have sweet nothings whispered to them on St. Valentine’s Day.
Puzzle people, however, prefer to have tough-love cross words shouted out to them. Shouted out to them, for example, in the form of this twelfth cryptic crossword puzzle created for Puzzleria! by Patrick J. Berry (screen name, “cranberry”).
Think of it as Patrick’s loving Valentine’s Day card to us!
(Open this link if you wish to access Patrick’s eleventh cryptic crossword, and also to link to his ten previous crosswords.)
If you are unfamiliar with cryptic crossword puzzles, here are a few basic cryptic crossword puzzle instructions:
Regarding the Across and Down clues and their format...
The number in parentheses at the end of each clue tells how many letters are in the answer. Multiple numbers in parentheses indicate how letters are distributed in multiple-word answers.
For example, (6) indicates a six-letter answer like “jalopy,” (5,3) indicates a five-and-three-letter answer like “cargo van,” and (5-5) indicates a five-and-five-letter hyphenated answer like “Rolls-Royce.”
(For further insight about how to decipher these numbered cryptic clues, see Patrick’s “Cryptic Crossword Tutorial” in this link to his November 17, 2017 cryptic crossword. The Tutorial appears below the grid that contains the answers in that edition of Puzzleria!)
Now, let’s get to the heart of Patrick’s Valentine card:
ACROSS
1. Top director – what he shot is in film(5,4)
6. Letter as it was written, a few notes stuck together(5)
9. Corrupt President’s rage getting old – a bad time in 2(5,10)
10. Mailman heading off, running from dog, for example(6)
11. Noticed spot in grass(8)
13. Could be accepted as NASA trainee?(5,5)
14. Country recording includes two cuts from Haggard(4)
16. Drink in sunshine, hippies!(4)
17. In my opinion, no time for sassy girl to carry on(10)
19. God – Dicky is on dope!(8)
20. Seal or swan, by the sound of it(6)
23. Promises no fails, supposedly having expertise?(15)
24. Or any manufactured fabric?(5)
25. Vulture in ghastly scene, with grave, cut short(9)
DOWN
1. Follow mother’s teachings(5)
2. Our past machinery sorta improved with start of industrialism(8,7)
3. Stack he prepared with love for breakfast(8)
4. Couple having sex upset me(4)
5. What a “stable genius” should have from the start, therefore, according to Rev. Spooner?(5,5)
6. Problem with a shrimp cocktail right off?(6)
7. Late night, curled up with Dickens – not having energy to make it?(5,3,7)
8. A pop singer goes outside for a drink(6,3)
12. Hear scores broadcast – they do go by fast!(10)
13. Sadly, Dapper Dan’s date never showed – it must be rough(9)
15. Prisoner holds it up close(8)
18. Singer has terrible opening – heart not in it(6)
21. Watch headmaster in class(5)
22. Baseball player needs help reaching second base(4)
MENU
Nuts And Bolts Slice:
Retail sales and Eagles’ tales
Divide the name of a U.S.-based retail company into two equal parts.
Spell the second part backward. The result is a two-word place the Eagles sang about.
What is the name of this company?
Hint: It is a “nuts and bolts” industrial supply company.
Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices:
Penny lopes across the globe
Will Shortz’s February 9th NPR Weekend Edition Sunday puzzle, created by Peter Collins of Ann Arbor, Michigan, reads:
My friend Penelope, who is from La Jolla, went on a world vacation. She stopped in Santa Rosa, Toronto and Casablanca. What European capital did she also visit?
Puzzleria!s Riffing Off Shortz And Collins Slices read:
ENTREE #1
A 1970’s supergroup from Los Angeles embarked on a world tour, making seven stops. Flying westward, they performed in Peking, Indochina, Dubravica, Barcelona, Georgia, Nantucket and...
In what other eastern U.S. state did they perform?
ENTREE #2
Peter Collins’ friend Penelope, who is from La Jolla, went on a world vacation.
She stopped in Santa Rosa, Toronto, Casablanca and Amsterdam. Penelope, La Jolla, Santa Rosa, Toronto, Casablanca and Amsterdam all end with the same two letters that they begin with, in the same order.
Find the following words that all end with the same three letters that they begin with, in the same order.
You will be provided with a clue for each word, followed (in parentheses) with the interior letters that are flanked by the trios of letters at the beginning and end of the word.
A. Sycophantic, intended to curry favor; (ratiat)
B. Capable of being whitened, ideally without ruining the garment, or perhaps hair; (acha)
C. Word following “That’s” or preceding “Tonight”; (ertainm)
D. Harasser, heckler; (men)
E. Word following “Weather” or preceding “Railroad”; (ergro)
ENTREE #3
Find the following words that all end with the same four letters that they begin with, in the same order. You will be provided with a clue for each word, followed (in parentheses) with the interior letters that are flanked by the quartets of letters at the beginning and end of the word.
Note: Most, if not all, of these words are somewhat contrived. They cannot be found in many (and, in some cases, any) dictionaries. Word C includes a hyphen.
A. A pursuit plied by Machiavelli, Neville, Farley and Murdoch; (ma)
B. Like Lynette, who tried to kill a one-time King; (akye)
C. What many yacht club members can claim;
(-owner)
D. Like unprepared teachers, perhaps; (on)
E. Quality possessed by a Scottish lake monster; (ie)
Dessert Menu
Shiny Happy Dessert:
“Shine on harvest moon, new in the sky”
Take an adverb one might use in a phrase describing a shiny new object.
Remove from the middle a four-letter noun for one such shiny new object, leaving a four-letter synonym of a verb that appears on the object.
What are this adverb, noun and two verbs?
Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to cravers of scrumptious puzzles!
Our master chef, Grecian gourmet puzzle-creator Lego Lambda, blends and bakes up mysterious (and sometimes questionable) toppings and spices (such as alphabet soup, Mobius bacon strips, diced snake eyes, cubed radishes, “hominym” grits, anagraham crackers, rhyme thyme and sage sprinklings.)
Please post your comments below. Feel free also to post clever and subtle hints that do not give the puzzle answers away. Please wait until after 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesdays to post your answers and explain your hints about the puzzles. We serve up at least one fresh puzzle every Friday.
We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzleria! Thank you.
If you switch a pair of consecutive letters in “framers” – “r” and “a” – the result is “farmers.” 
Change the last four letters of the phrase to a different four letters to name an endangered bird.
What literary connection does a past novelist from the American Midwest have with the last names of two of Major League Baseball’s all-time leading base stealers?
Name an Italian pronoun associated with mothers (thanks to a Swedish band’s song that inspired a Broadway musical, a movie and its sequel).
ENTREE #2
If you pronounce the result aloud, phonetically it will sound like a “politically incorrect” comment one might make to a man or woman clad in such pants. 
The result is formal or semi-formal menswear, in two words, sometimes worn with a matching suit jacket. (These two words are oxymoronic. The menswear, however, ought not be laundered in Oxydol, but rather drycleaned!)
Write a two-word caption for the left-hand side of the image pictured here, and a three-word caption for the right-hand side of the image. 
Think of a hyphenated word (often written as two words) that describes certain pants that taper all the way down to the bottom of the leg. 
ENTREE #7
The first and second parts of the word can function as verbs. 
If you switch the beginning sounds of these two words and say the result aloud it will sound like a trendy two-word idiom for an obsessive distraction. 
